


triumvirate

by twistedsky



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 06:13:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8090566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/pseuds/twistedsky
Summary: For the NWS prompt: "Wells + Miller + Raven: unlikely friends on the Ark."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is for the No White Saviors Exchange for my second prompt. This was prompted by ankahikoibaat.
> 
> Warnings: Mentions of canonical death, the screwed up Ark killing system, and mentions of abuse.
> 
> I definitely rewrote history, and I hope that's okay. In my fantasy land, Wells lives and they all stay friends forever. I hope this isn't completely terrible.

At the age of ten, Nathan Miller is a bit of a thief.

It's mostly just small stuff--little trinkets, scraps of food he doesn't think anyone will notice. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, or get caught, but he does it anyway.

It's not that he's hungry, or that he needs these things. He doesn't mind the sparse lifestyle they all live on the Ark. It's just that he can't seem to stop himself.

Ever since his mom died, things have been harder than usual. He feels like he's looking at a wall when he's with his dad, like his dad is an immovable object instead of a person.

So here he is, food in hand, hiding in an air vent.

He's never been in this one before, but it seems as good as any other. He's not sure what he's supposed to do with the food now. There's a roll, and a container of mashed potatoes, and a protein packet.

It's not like he needs it.

He hears a gentle knock at the air vent, and he jumps. It's a little less Cool Guy than he'd like to be, but 'do bad things, get floated,' has been drilled into him all his life.

He looks down at the food in his hands, and almost wants to laugh.

He is not going to die over some mashed potatoes and bread.

He hides the food behind his back, and scooches closer to the air vent.

Wells Jaha, son of the Ark Chancellor, peers at him through the vent opening. It would be funny, if Nathan weren't quaking with terror.

"What are you doing in there?" Wells asks.

They've never really been close. Nathan's dad is Chief Guard, and they both live on Alpha, but that doesn't make them friends.

"Nothing," Nathan says back.

Wells shakes his head, and looks around before looking back at Nathan.

"Let me in, please," Wells requests, and Nathan hesitates.

He hears voices from down the hall, about to turn the corner into their section, and he pops off the air vent cover and moves back to make room for Wells.

Wells gets in quickly, putting the vent cover back in place expertly. It's kind of awesome.

The footsteps and voices get closer, until finally they pass right by.

They wait in silence for what feels like an eternity.

"What are you doing here?" Nathan asks eventually.

"I just needed to get away," Wells whispers, and Nathan doesn't know what to say to that.

Nathan needs to get away sometimes too.

"My dad is . . . " Wells trails off. "It's different, you know, without my mom."

"Oh," Nathan says. He'd forgotten that Wells's mother had died recently. He's uncomfortable, and doesn't know what to say. "I'm sorry," is what he settles for.

"Me too," Wells says, and then he gives Nathan a careful look. "I'm sorry about your mom, too."

"Yeah," Nathan says, and his voice cracks, almost like he's about to cry. He clears his throat. "I mean," he says more firmly, forcing away the feeling. "We could start a club."

Wells looks at him, wide-eyed, like he's shocked Nathan would say that.

"The dead mom's club," Nathan points out, and Wells laughs.

It's a quick laugh, and it stops as fast as it starts, and Wells looked stunned, like he's surprised himself.

"Yeah," Wells replies. "We could."

Nathan just nods in the darkness.

"What are you doing in here?" Wells asks, looking around. "Is that--" he points behind Nathan. "Did you steal food?"

"Um," Nathan says. "No?"

Wells wrinkles up his face, like he's not quite sure what to say. "You shouldn't do that."

"Yeah," Nathan says. "I know."

"Are you hungry?" Wells asks. "Because if you are, then--"

"No," Nathan interrupts him. "It's not that."

Wells sighs. "Then you should give it back."

"I think that'd be harder than taking it to begin with," Nathan points out.

"Think of it as a challenge," Wells suggests. "Or at least give it to someone who needs it."

"I guess," Nathan says. "I could do that." Warmth spreads through him at the idea.

Wells's eyes light up. "Let's go," he says, crawling back toward the air vent entrance. "Are you coming?" he asks, looking back over his shoulder at Nathan.

"Yeah," Nathan says, "Why not?"

~~

It  _is_  harder to wander around with the food than it was to take it to begin with. There's a bigger chance they'll get caught, and Nathan's pretty much going to be dead, dead, dead if they do.

Thankfully, it's a quick walk through the hallways when they see a mother and daughter arguing in the hall. It's pretty serendipitous--vocab word, Nathan thinks, and he does a mental fist pump. The girl is about their age, though she doesn't look familiar to Nathan.

"Mom, I'm hungry," the little girl whines.

"You can eat later," the mother says, but she has rations in her hands. It would be easy for her to give her daughter some, but she's not doing that. Something tenses in Nathan's stomach.

Nathan looks at Wells and nods.They've never really been super close before, but it's starting to feel like maybe they are.

This is their opportunity to do something good. It's like that guy in that story Nathan loves. Nathan could be Robin Hood.

"Hello, ma'am," Wells says, walking up to the woman while Nathan awkwardly shoves the food into the little girl's hands.

She looks at him like she's suspicious, instead of thankful. Which, to be fair, makes sense. If someone random shoved food at him for no reason, he'd probably be a little freaked out too.

The girl turns to her mother, who is busy looking at Wells, who is stalling for time  _horribly._ Nathan is pretty sure Wells is listing off all of the newest Ark mandates.

This, Nathan thinks, is probably why people don't like Wells Jaha.

The girl standing next to Nathan hides the food in her bag, and gives him a brief smile.

"Raven, it's time to go," the mother says finally. She turns away from Wells, irritation evident.

Wells smiles at Nathan innocently, and Nathan nods back at him.

This, he thinks, is why people  _should_  like Wells Jaha.

~~

Nathan doesn't see Wells much for a while after that. Yeah, sure, he sees him in classes, or in the halls, but they don't talk.

It's like he imagined their whole experience, like Wells didn't climb into an air vent after him.

It continues like this, until one day Wells walks up to him with a smile, and whispers, “Meet me in the vent after lessons,” softly.

Nathan has nothing to lose, and he thinks Wells seems decent, and so he goes.

He has that tingly feeling he gets when he steels something, that excitement that seems to make everything else fall away.

He looks both ways down the hallway, and then opens the vent, and then almost jumps.

The girl from before is in there right now, staring at him as if she’s daring him to get in.

“Well?” the girl says in a challenging tone, which basically means that Nathan doesn’t have a choice but to get in.

Nathan climbs in, putting the vent cover back in place, and crawling through to where the girl is sitting.

“I’m Raven,” she says, playing with the charm on her necklace, which Nathan realizes is a bird. A raven, obviously.

“Miller,” Nathan says. He started asking people to call him that when he was younger, because that’s what his dad’s friends call his dad, but it’s sort of just stuck, even if he doesn’t really get along with his dad most days.

“Thanks for the food,” Raven says now, and then she reaches for a bag sitting next to her, and pulls out a broken radio, and starts taking it apart.

“What are you doing?” Nathan asks. “Did you steal that?”

Raven looks him up and down, and then smirks. “I don’t think you’d have any room to talk, even if I did,” which is not a denial, exactly.

“I wasn’t judging you,” Nathan retorts. “I was just asking.”

Raven snorts. “We could trade secrets about the best way to steal stuff.”

She’s joking, but honestly that sounds kind of cool? But Nathan’s not going to say that.

Nathan doesn’t know what to say now though, so he just sits there and watches Raven.

He’s not even really sure why they’re there, other than the fact that Wells obviously told them to go there.

Someone starts taking off the vent cover, and thankfully it’s Wells.

“What are we doing here?” Raven asks almost immediately.

Wells hesitates, like he’s not sure his words are going to be well-received. Eventually, he chooses to just go for it. “I think we should be friends.”

Raven laughs, and it echoes loudly through the vent. “Why?”

“Why not?” Wells counters, and Raven narrows her eyes at him.

“You can’t just make people become friends,” Nathan points out.

“I know,” Wells says. “But I’ve got a good feeling about us.”

“I’m not really sure—“ Nathan starts to say, but then he looks at Wells, and he feels himself waver.

There’s something about him that makes you want to trust him.

“You guys can’t be worse than the people I already know,” Raven says then during the lull, and flashes a smile.

“Exactly,” Wells says, snapping his fingers. “The first thing we should do is find a new hiding spot,” he says, and Raven snorts.

"Okay," Nathan says finally. It's not like he has much to lose.

~~

“My dad would hate this,” Wells says as they sneak into an old storage room. It’s still in use, but it’s full of stuff, and there are plenty of places to hide. According to the schedule, no one even needs to go into the room more than once a month, and Wells just happens to know the code to the door.

Therefore, it’s perfect.

“Probably,” Nathan says with a laugh. “So would mine.”

“Mine would probably—“ Raven smiles. “Not care? Who knows. I know my mom would probably be grateful if I got floated or something, if she didn’t want to trade my rations.”

Wells reaches out a hand, and takes Raven’s in his own. Nathan watches him squeeze it gently.

There’s something to be said about not being alone. It's a weird thought, and it scares him a little.

Wells has a knack for making people open up to him. Nathan has never been all that great at that.

It doesn’t take much prodding to break Raven wide open. Raven's the kind of person who doesn't trust easily, and yet here she is.

“My mom is basically the worst,” Raven tells them, and Nathan feels bad about complaining about his dad, because he’s not really that bad.

The worst thing Nathan’s dad has ever done is not be his mom, which isn’t anyone’s fault. Nathan resolves to be nicer to him, even if he’s never going to understand him, even if they’ll never be close.

When Nathan finds himself telling Wells and Raven these things, it feels like something breaks wide open inside of _him_.

Maybe it's not half-bad.

~~

Spending time with Wells is easy, and it even makes Nathan’s dad happy, since he’s hanging out with a ‘good’ kid instead of a troublemaker.

It makes Nathan laugh, because he’s probably enough troublemaker for both of them.

Wells is genuinely good, through and through, but he’ll break rules when it matters, especially for friendship.

Nathan counts himself lucky to be someone Wells calls a friend.

And Raven—Raven is a spitfire, she’s intense, but she’s funny and smart too. It's easy to like her, just like it's easy to like Wells.

“Nathan?" Wells calls over to him from the window in their hideaway. Raven is off at engineering working on a special project, and it's just the two of them.

"Yeah?" Nathan replies from his cozy little blanket on the floor.

"Have you told your dad that you don’t want to be a guard yet?” Wells asks, and Nathan feels instant guilt.

Time passes, and they get older and older, and close to needing to know what they’re going to do with themselves.

Raven is a genius, and clearly a mechanic. Engineering has already snapped her right up.

Wells is a natural leader, but he’s also really smart, so Nathan wouldn’t be surprised to see him become a teacher.

“No, I haven’t,” Nathan answers. “I’m not really sure it matters.”

“Of course it does,” Wells says, and it sounds like he actually believes it. “All we have is the Ark, and what we do with ourselves is one of the few things we have some control over.

“It’s not that easy,” Nathan says simply, and Wells stops pressing.

Nathan doesn’t want to talk about this. He doesn’t really want to talk about much of anything most of the time, especially his feelings.

“I know,” Wells says now. He decides to change the subject, and Nathan is grateful. “Do you ever think about earth?”

“Not more than anyone else,” Nathan says, and it’s the truth. He doesn’t spend too much time imagining the lives they could have lived if human history had taken a different path.

“I do,” Wells admits now. “All the time. I think—I hope we can do better next time.”

Nathan’s not sure he can believe that’s even a remote possibility. People are inherently concerned with their own survival, with their own selfishness. Nathan’s not sure humanity can overcome that.

And yet, Wells is completely sure. He believes in human goodness, and in the future of their species.

It’s commendable, and Nathan envies him.

“I hope you’re right,” Nathan says.

“Me too,” Wells agrees, and Nathan wants to believe like he does, but it doesn’t feel like it matters.

He decides to pretend, just for a little while.

“Earth is probably pretty awesome," Nathan says. "I think it would be cool to see snow,” Nathan continues. “Rain, sunshine, blue skies. I bet they’d be amazing.” They'll never get the chance to see any of it, but it's a nice thought.

Wells stares out of the window intently. Space is beautiful, but dark and deadly. “Yeah,” Wells says, and Nathan can see his smile reflected in the window. “I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want to protect that, to do better.”

 "Yeah," Nathan agrees, and he's not sure Wells even hears him.

~~

Wells and Raven are the first people he tells that he likes boys a lot more than he likes girls.

Nathan quickly comes to regret this(but not really.)

To be fair, he really figures it out at the same time that he tells them, so it’s not like he’s revealing state secrets. Not that it would matter anyway.

“What do you think of Harper?” Wells asks one day while they’re working on Earth Skills homework.

“Aw, does Wells have himself a little girlfriend?” Raven teases.

“No,” Wells shakes his head, “But I think Nathan might. She’s got a thing for him.”

Wells is probably not wrong, actually. She'd volunteered to do classroom clean-up duty when it was his turn, which is incredibly boring and time-consuming.

“She’s nice,” Nathan hedges. He’s never really thought about her like that.

He doesn’t really think about _anyone_ like that.

“He’s probably nervous about the whole dating thing,” Raven says, as if she has so much more experience than he does.

“Like you wouldn’t be,” Nathan counters, and Raven just smiles deviously.

“Are you afraid of the kissing?” Raven asks innocently. “We could always practice.”

“Oh, no,” Nathan says, “This is clearly just an excuse for you to get your hands on me,” he announces smugly. It’s just a joke, but Raven takes it as a challenge.

Nathan’s never been too great at backing down from challenges either, so they’re both screwed.

“Maybe we should practice,” Raven says, and Wells laughs.

“Maybe we should,” Nathan says back, taking a step closer to Raven.

They both stare at each other, and Nathan is overcome with the urge to laugh.

But this is a competition, and he doesn’t want to lose.

They inch closer to each other, until finally Wells starts counting down, and they stop playing chicken.

It’s over in an instant. He presses his lips against hers, and it feels . . . eh.

“Huh,” Nathan frowns. “I don’t get it.”

Raven laughs. “Maybe we just don’t have chemistry,” she suggests, and she beckons a finger at Wells. “Why don’t you try?” she asks.

“Uh, sure,” Wells says, and Raven presses her lips to Wells’s, and it’s a little strange to watch his friends kiss, but it looks less awkward than his kiss with Raven felt, so.

“Now,” Raven says breathlessly when they pull apart, “You try,” and she shoves Wells at Nathan.

Wells shrugs, as if to say why not, and so Nathan kisses him.

It’s better than with Raven, even though it doesn’t last much longer.

There’s an undercurrent of something different. Maybe chemistry, or maybe just natural attraction.

“Oh,” Nathan says afterward. “That was better. I mean, I wouldn't want to date you, but--yeah." It's a little bit of a surprise, but it explains a lot. Cool.

“I thought they were both nice,” Wells says with a shrug, like it doesn’t matter either way to him, like he’s saying he likes naps or sweets.

“I get that,” Raven says, “I’ve kissed girls before, and it’s pretty awesome,” she’s so open that Nathan feels the words cover him like a warm blanket.

“I think—“Nathan clears his throat. “I mean, I’m not really sure, but I think I kind of preferred kissing Wells. Not that I like you like that, but just—“ Nathan hesitates, but Wells nods like he gets it.

Raven looks at him thoughtfully. “Cool,” she says. “I mean, I’m a little insulted, because I like to think I’m a great kisser—“ Raven laughs after Nathan gently knocks his arm against hers.

And that’s how it happens. It’s easy with them somehow, and Nathan feels like no matter what happens, he’ll have them.

~~

"We should do something," Wells says one day randomly.

"That's vague," Raven says with a chuckle. She doesn't even look up from messing with some broken piece of equipment she has in front of her. Raven's mentor Sinclair gave it to her as a birthday present. Nathan has no idea what it is or what it does. Nathan's not sure what he'd do with it, but Raven seems to be enjoying herself.

Nathan looks up from reading some book from Lit class. So far it's okay, but that Wickham guy is kind of a tool. "What do you want to do?" Nathan asks.

Wells smiles triumphantly, even though all he's done is get their attention.

"Have your heard about the new recommendation the Council got?" Wells asks, and Nathan frowns.

"I'm sure you're going to tell us," Raven says, but she smiles warmly at Wells, who makes a face back at her.

"They want to lower the age range for crime punishment, and for floating people who have advanced to a certain age." It's a nice way of saying they want to be able to kill more people to buy the rest of them a little more comfort and time until the people of the Ark return to earth.

"Are you kidding me?" Raven asks, "Ugh," she scrunches up her nose angrily, and looks a little violent. Raven's his friend, and she still scares him sometimes.

"That sucks," Nathan says. This is way things are on the Ark--always progressively getting worse. It's strict for a reason, for their survival. All that's ever done is make Nathan want to rebel, which is why he says the next words without even thinking. "You're right. We should do something."

"Agreed," Raven says. "Let's blow some shit up."

Wells doesn't even seem phased by Raven's immediate escalation of the situation. "I'd rather we didn't have to die to make our point," he says wryly.

"That would be preferable," Nathan agrees, and Raven shrugs.

"Your loss," Raven tilts her head to the side, deep in thought. "So what do you want to do?"

"We should screw with the air filtration system, let the Council see what it's like to not be able to breathe," Nathan suggests. It feels wrong, but it makes sense to him. This is the way the world works, and this is how you make your point.

"That might be a little too--" Wells sighs. "I'm not sure that's the right thing to do."

"Yeah, probably not," Nathan admits. He honestly doesn't think that would end in anything but disaster anyway.

"We should focus on the public," Raven suggests. "I didn't know about, and I'm guessing a lot of other people don't. We should tell them, and get them to rally against the possible law change. It could make a difference, especially with elections coming up next year," Raven nods at Wells. "Your dad won't back it then."

Wells frowns. "My dad does what he _thinks_ is right, but--" Wells sighs. "I think you're right. It couldn't hurt."

"Then we're agreed," Nathan says. "We could could do propaganda videos and ads. Stuff that really makes you _feel_ something."

"The yearly station sessions are next week," Wells points out. "We could use that to get attention before the vote next month."

"Let's do this," Raven says. She pushes aside her little pet mechanical project, and focuses her full attention on Wells and Nathan. "Where do you want to start?"

~~

They start with viral videos, which cloud all of the home screens for a good six hours before the Ark manages to take them down.

It's easy for Raven and some friend of hers from engineering to cast the videos to every screen in the Ark. They're pretty dramatically edited, and more than a little emotionally manipulative, but it's important, so they go for broke.

They want to coat the 'town hall' meetings in fake blood, but there's just not enough material to work with, so they have to be creative.

They write _murderers_ and _child killers_ in some special substance that only shows up in the dark, and then Raven rigs it so that the lights all go out at exactly the right time.

It's kind of awesome, and they high five afterwards.

Nathan steals the supplies they need, Raven hacks and tinkers, and Wells is the brains.

They're a team.

The Ark calls them criminals, and threatens to float them if they're found.

It doesn't matter, because the damage is done, and the resolution is so unpopular, there's no way for anyone from the Council to support it without sabotaging themselves in the next election cycle.

It feels good.

~~

On one particular day, Nathan and Raven head to their hideaway, and Nathan is trying to stay stone-faced, and not completely freak out until they’re safely away from everyone else.

Raven shuts the door behind them, and Nathan plops down on the old blanket they’d stashed in the storage room.

 “Oh my god,” Nathan groans, burying his head in his hands. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“You’ll be fine,” Raven says, slapping him on the back. “It was just an awkward moment.”

“No,” Nathan groans. “It was not just an awkward moment. I—“

“Aww,” Raven says. “You like him.”

Nathan groans again. “I fell on my face after saying that he smelled nice.”

Raven doesn’t laugh, which Nathan is incredibly grateful for.

There’s a knock at the door, and Wells comes in quickly, shutting the door behind himself.

“I heard you had quite the day,” Wells says, and Raven laughs.

“He’s embarrassed,” Raven explains gleefully. “Poor thing,” she says, reaching out and mussing up his beanie.

“I regret being friends with you,” Nathan says, but he doesn’t, and they know it.

“He’s a pretty cool guy,” Wells says, “But he might be a little too serious and rule-abiding for you,” Wells teases.

Raven laughs. “Well, he is friends with you,” she points out. “Maybe opposites attract.”

“Maybe you guys should date then,” Nathan says, and he’s not too serious.

“But back to you,” Raven says, completely ignoring him, “I think you should ask him out. Go look out at the stars together. There’s supposed to be a meteor shower soon.”

Nathan frowns, but hope bubbles in his chest. “Maybe,” he says noncommittally.

"Maybe he's afraid that he won't be the coolest guy in the room then," Wells suggests.

"Or," Raven brightens. "He's afraid he'll have competition for the most stern, least emotive person award."

"To be fair," Wells says, "The only thing that can compete with Nate for that is," Wells pauses dramatically. "A rock."

Raven giggles, and Nathan makes a face at both of them.

"I hate you guys," he says.

"You don't," Raven says fondly.

"I wish I did," Nathan retorts.

"But you don't," Wells says, and then he laughs.

His friends are the worst, obviously, but they make him smile.

~~

Raven turns eighteen first, which means that her life is about to change. Nathan and Wells still have several months before they have to take their final tests and get placed onto a career path, but Raven’s future is now.

“You’re going to do great,” Wells says, reaching over and squeezing Raven’s hand.

“Yeah,” Nathan agrees. “You will.”

“Engineering is pretty competitive,” Raven says uncertainly. She puts on a brave front, but deep down she has a deep desire to be loved, to be appreciated, and recognized. Impulsively, Nathan reaches out and grabs Raven's other hand.

“And you’re the best,” Nathan says simply. “Sinclair knows that. Everyone knows that. It wouldn’t even make sense for you not to have your pick of assignments.”

Raven turns and looks toward one of the Ark window. Raven has dreams—she wants to go out there, to push herself to her limit, to be as free as she can possibly be.

This is her dream, and unlike Raven, Nathan and Wells believe completely that this is going to work out.

It has to.

And when it doesn’t, it’s heartbreaking in a multitude of ways.

~~

Wells and Nathan immediately want to make her dreams come true, and so they break into engineering, and get Raven into a spacesuit before they do much more than plan.

They don't think about the consequences, they just hope they don't get caught.

In the end they lose a hell of a lot of air, and Wells takes the blame before Nathan even gets a chance to consider it.

He thinks he'd probably do the same thing, but he'll never get the chance, because Wells is a self-sacrificial asshole(he's really not, but Nathan doesn't know what else to do if he doesn't tell himself this).

He's angry at Wells, and he's angry at himself, and mostly he's angry at the Ark.

~~

Nathan screws up.

He's got a pile of stolen crap, and he's not sure what to do with it. He doesn't need it, doesn't even want it, but here he is.

 Nate,” Raven says, “You need to be more careful.” Raven looks scared at the sight of Nathan's pile, and she doesn't spook easily. 

He's starting collecting stuff in earnest, at pretty much every chance he gets.

Nathan is scared too, but he doesn’t know how to verbalize it. He doesn’t know how to explain the anxiety in his heart. He's not very good at losing people, and he's terrified of losing Wells.

He says nothing, and stares silently down at his pile.

“We’ll figure something out,” Raven says, but she doesn’t believe it any more than Nathan does. There is no hope, there is only the law.

Raven may be smart, but there's no way out of this one.

No one gets pardoned when they turn eighteen. They review your case, and they condemn you to death.

It’s almost funny the way that they have trouble killing kids, but as soon as they turn eighteen, suddenly their worries are gone.

Nathan wonders what the difference between 17 and 364 days and 18 years is.

Enough to kill someone, apparently.

There’s rage boiling in his gut, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Raven sits next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder.

It doesn't change things.

"I'm sorry," Raven says softly. 

"It's not your fault," Nathan says automatically. He's told himself this a million times, and most of the time he believes it. 

He only blames her when he's not being fair, and he knows it.

Wells made his choice, and he'd make it again and again, if only out of the hope that something could get better, that somehow things would work out.

Somehow, the fact that Wells has a few months to live, and Raven is still alive sitting next to Nathan is better than the alternative where she's dead, and he and Wells have decades left without her. In a few months both options will be unbearable. 

Nathan can't let himself imagine the alternative, but he also can't help but hate that a few months from now, Wells will be gone forever.

He wishes he could go back and change things. They should have made better choices, or Nathan should have taken the blame before Wells.

Instead, this is the way the world is. It sucks.

~~

Nathan gets caught stealing, and it’s probably long past time.

His dad comes to visit him after he’s sentenced and sent to the Skybox.

His dad stands awkwardly for a while, waiting for Nathan to say something, but he doesn’t.

He doesn’t know what to say. He’s an embarrassment, he’s a screw up, and he’s going to die.

Finally, David Miller sits down next to his son on the ground, sighing.

Nathan can _hear_ disappointment in that sigh.

“I’m sorry,” his dad says, and Nathan looks at him in surprise. “I should have done better.”

Nathan doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just sits and looks back down at the ground.

His dad reaches out to him, like he’s going to hug him or something. He doesn’t. His dad pulls back, and the look on his face is confusing to Nathan. He looks like he feels guilty, like he's sorry.

“I wish things were different,” his dad says, and Nathan watches him as he gets up and gets ready to leave.

His dad pauses at the door for a brief moment, and the words tumble out. “Me too,” Nathan says, and his dad looks back at him.

They stare at each other for a moment, and his father nods.

He leaves then, and Nathan is alone until his roommate gets back from visitation.

Sorrow wells up inside of him, and it doesn’t matter. It’s all too late.

~~

 Nathan is sitting across from Wells on the dropship.

They're hurtling towards earth, and it feels more wrong than right, but here they are.

He wonders if they'll ever see Raven again, or if they'll even live to see  _anything_ on the ground.

He hopes they'll get the chance.

(One day they do, and then it's the three of them, together again, an unstoppable force of nature.)

For now, he hurtles towards the earth, full of fear and excitement.


End file.
